Nuts spin without coming off - rear retaining clips broke? How to fix?

[Joecar 2 1 Cars]

Hi guys,

 

I am currently trying to change my cambelt and I'm struggling with some of the nuts, especially one on the cambelt cover: It keeps spinning and spinning when I turn it without coming loose, while the bolt its screwed upon also turns. I've had the same problem with the nuts that held the service cover (the one that you have to remove in the wheel arch), however I managed to drill those out - I cannot do this with the one in question because there's absolutely no space to do anything there.

 

I believe that the retaining clips (or something like that) on the other side of the screw/nut broke. How on earth can I get the cover off? I already tried to apply upward pressure to the cambelt cover but it didn't do anything. I'm really struggling and happy for any tips. 

 

All best,

Joe

[Gohn 68]

yours is an '87 GTi 1.9 joe ?

 

not sure which nut/bolt you mean ?

 

just got the catalog pics

your timing covers will be either up to March'87 or from March'87

check the pics and clarify if you can

this is looking more like a bad design peugeot thing

I had no idea the early XU9 timing covers were so complicated (only worked on late model XUD and XU5's)

guessing maybe you're problem are something like numbers 74 or 75 ?

 

dont want to discourage you, but space is tight there, so what should be simple could be a proper problem

hopefully there's some easy solution on the way

[Joecar 2 1 Cars]

Thanks for the response, it should be the model from March '87. The nut in question is no. 73, it turns together with the bolt it's screwed upon. 

I am towing the car to my uncle who is a mechanic today and we're taking a look together when he gets around to it. Let's hope that this is an easy fix/something a mixture of experience and brute force can fix.